Creative Challenge

Creative Challenge: Logo / Graphic Design

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Creative Challenge Number 3

This week’s creative challenge, design a logo or graphic for yourself, your neighbour, your business, your dream business, your baseball team, your secret super hero identity.

Here’s mine for Exploring-Art.com:

In addition to the weekly participation call; to create one yourself and post it online to share with us, I will also review the process I went through to create this graphic, utilizing the creative process outlined in Monday’s post.

Phase 1: Initial Idea
My super-concious returned the idea for a logo or graphic, in response to two loosely coupled asynchronous queries… A topic for a weekly challenge, and a graphic for T-shirts and business cards for shameless self promotion…

Once I had decided to design a graphic, where was I to start? Again my super-concious answered. Remember those coloured bars on old, analog, CRT televisions when there was no signal? That was the seed from which my graphic emerged.

Phase 2: Discernment
I googled for images of “no TV signal” to refresh my memory of what they looked like… I counted the number of coloured bars and sketched a layout in my unlined notebook. I had originally imagined the pictures on top of the colour bars but quickly realized that it would be better underneath. I was originally thinking there would be space for the URL as well as the name but quickly saw that would be far too cluttered.

I also wanted to soften the colours from the no signal graphics, going back to my notion of creatio collegiate, I wanted the colours to be more welcoming than abrasive.

I recognized the need for block letters to make the .com name readable, striking and similar to the current theme used on the WordPress site.

A one man search through recent photos for photos that would blend into the coloured bar above them…

Can you feel it? The fabulously fantastic frenzy of being in the flow of the creative process? If you don’t do this regularly you really ought to try it… If a graphic is too intimidating try the pen name, or poetic snapshot challenge. Look for a new Creative Challenge every week a exploring-art.com.

Phase 3: Refinement
I had to fix the white black space. I tried a dozen different fonts, switched photos in and out… reiterate, iterate, reiterate.

Phase 4: Completion
I got that warm happy feeling, and I was done.

Creative Challenge: Poetic Snapshot

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Creative Challenge Number 2

For the next few days, or for as long as it takes, I want you to really look around you when you are out and about. You are looking for something that speaks to you, that inspires you, that reminds you that you live in an incredible world.

Whip out that camera or camera phone that I know you always have on you and snap a serendipitous shot. Post it online and share with us what you like about it.

Here’s mine:

My wife actually gets credit for spying this natural vignette but I snapped the photo with my iPhone 4. I love dew, it reminds of childhood and playing in the grass in the morning. It reminds of spring and fall, the seasons and the passing of time, the poetic nature of existence…

So keep your eyes open for something that inspires you, take a snap shot, determine what about it moves you and share it!

Creative Challenge: Pen Name

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A creative challenge that came about within a FA101 class discussion was to fashion yourself a creative handle, a pen name. I have had handles for online things before, but I had never attempted to craft one with meaning.

So I let that percolate away in my super-concious, and out the other end of the process came: “Creatio Collegiate”, here is why.

“Creatio” has Ancient Greek and/or Latin roots, and is the root for the english word creation. Creatio has connotations of the natural world (rather than man made items) and may also invoke spiritual or god like themes.

“Collegiate” of course evokes collaborative, inclusive, friendly and betterment themes.

So taken together the pen name “Creatio Collegiate” is about collaborative, friendly creation with the aim of self improvement; specifically becoming more well rounded, and appreciative of the many beauties our existence has to offer. I used the Creatio Collegiate name as my Vimeo handle to support the sharing of my FA101 creative acts during class. Exploring-Art.com is a continuation of this theme, and an attempt to sustain it beyond my current continuing education activities.

What is your creative pen name? Why? Don’t have one? Well now you have your first Creative Challenge! Good luck!